Ken Burns joins benefit for Monadnock film festival

WALPOLE — L.A. Burdick Chocolate of Walpole plans to host of a red carpet event on Sunday with award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns as a benefit for the Monadnock International Film Festival.

“An Evening with Ken Burns” is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Main Street chocolate shop and café.

The film festival is nearing its goal of raising $135,000 for the nonprofit.

“This is our first real public fundraiser,” said MonIFF Executive Director Laina Barakat. “We just have $15,000 more to raise. We would love to be able to walk away with all of that on Sunday, but I think our goal is we would like to make a minimum of $5,000 at the event.”

The second annual MonIFF is being held in Keene April 10 to 12.

Filmmakers this year hail from Kosovo, Spain, France, Austria, Germany and Brazil.

“This year we have a ton more international filmmakers,” Barakat said.

The event is also a great way to tie in the Walpole filmmaker to the festival again.

“We featured his film last year and gave him the Jonathan Daniels award, that was his first contact with the festival,” Barakat said of Burns.

Burns won the first Jonathan Daniels award in 2013 for his documentary, “Central Park Five.” Barakat said the award is presented to a socially conscious filmmaker that echoes Daniels’ courage, purpose and spirit.

According to the MonIFF website, Daniels was a Keene native who as a young seminarian traveled to Alabama to assist with voter registration efforts and lost his life while saving the life of a black teenager, Ruby Sales.

Tickets to Sunday’s event are $75 per person or $125 per couple and include beer and cider from Clarke Distributors and Barefoot wine and bubbly, hearty appetizers courtesy of The Restaurant at Burdick and a chance to chat with Burns, whose film company, Florentine Films, is in Walpole.

A silent auction includes a couple’s massage from Deep Roots Massage, a his-and-her shopping package from Miranda’s and Miller Brothers, and a spa package from European Esthetics.Tickets can be ordered online at moniff.org or via email, monadnockiff@gmail.com.